Book

As a belated birthday gift, my mother purchased for me The Actor's Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues.

I have not had a chance to look through it much, but from what I can tell, there is all kinds of material there.

It will hopefully encourage me to add a few more monologues to my repertoire. Granted, most of the theatres I have auditioned for locally have not required prepared pieces. But if I ever go anywhere else, or decide to give the semi-pro thing a try, it's really a good idea to have a few on the top of one's head, when needed.

Plus, working on some of them will be good memorization practice, as well as brief characterization work. Both are beneficial to the actor without a play at any given moment.

My old acting professor used to say he preferred that students read the whole play from which a monologue they were performing came from. That it is the best way to understand the motivations or a particular speech. I suppose it is the BEST way, and nothing is stopping me from reading all 150 plays from which this collection is culled. But, I think there is still benefit to be gleaned from working with monologues even from shows I have not read completely.

I look forward to delving into this one.